Enhanced photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanotetrapods

The photocatalytic characteristics of the tetrapod-branched ZnO nanostructures synthesized by thermal evaporation method are investigated. The fitting of absorbance maximum plot versus time indicates an exponential decay, suggesting the photodegradation of Rhodamine B catalyzed by the ZnO nanotetrapod is a pseudo first-order reaction. These results demonstrate that the photocatalytic activity of ZnO nanotetrapod is much better than that of P25 ${\mathrm{TiO}}_2$ and ZnO powders. The slow electron/hole recombine rate due to the abundant surface states, as well as the high surface-to-volume ratio will effectively enhance the photocatalytic activity of the ZnO nanotetrapod.